Arsenal: Why Arsene Wenger’s time is up

At the moment, Arsenal are not worth watching. The players seem to have given up on the pitch and Arsene Wenger looks a beaten man on the touchline. I believe he should have left after the 2014 FA Cup win over Hull City but four years later he is still managing Arsenal. He has another year on his contract but here’s why I think this season is the time to say au revoir to Arsene Wenger.

Excuses, excuses

In his press conference after the second consecutive 3-0 defeat by Manchester City, Arsene Wenger said: “At the end of the day, I must say we lost against a top-quality team who at the moment are the best team in the country.” It seems as if Wenger just accepted defeat because Arsenal were playing Man City.

But if Championship side Wigan managed to beat them, then why couldn’t Arsenal? Twice in the space of five days Wenger’s side gifted Man City a 3-0 victory and then he made feeble attempts to defend the team after both matches.

He’s too comfortable

No matter how bad the results get, Wenger isn’t under any pressure to leave. In his pre-match conference on Wednesday, he stated that keeping his job as Arsenal manager is the “last worry” he has at the moment. Of course, it isn’t. He signed a new two-year contract in May 2017 after winning the FA Cup, despite missing out on Champions League qualification for the first time in 20 years.

He also went on to claim that he “turned the whole world down to respect his contracts.” Nobody asked Wenger to do that, he did it of his own accord. Just because he turned down other clubs, that shouldn’t mean he should have a job for life at Arsenal.

Arsenal will almost certainly miss out on Champions League qualification for the second consecutive season after being a permanent fixture in the competition for 20 years. In terms of points in the Premier League table, Arsenal are closer to bottom-placed West Brom (25) than they are to leaders Man City (30).

The Gunners have been rooted to sixth place since their 2-2 draw with Chelsea at the beginning of January. In fact, the last time Arsenal were in the top four this season was when they beat Newcastle 1-0 in mid-December. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the North London side have lost seven matches in all competitions in 2018, more than any other Premier League team.

If Arsene Wenger loves Arsenal as much as he says he does, he would accept that he can no longer take the club forward and step aside at the end of this season.